2023 AVCA Volleyball All-Region Teams
2023 D2CCA Volleyball All-Region Teams
On Wednesday and the eve of NCAA Tournament play, the G-MAC Champion Hillsdale College volleyball team learned that two of its players have earned All-Midwest Region recognition from the American Volleyball Coaches Association and the Division II Conference Commissioners Association.
Both bodies announced their All-Region honorees for NCAA DII Volleyball on Wednesday. The AVCA selects one All-Region team of 14 players and six honorable mention selections through a vote among NCAA DII coaches, while the D2CCA selects a seven-player first team and seven-player second team from players nominated by and voted on by NCAA DII Sports Information Directors.
Chargers Marilyn Popplewell and Alli Wiese were both recognized by the AVCA as All-Region players, with Popplewell receiving first team All-Midwest Region honors and Wiese earning honorable mention All-Region. Additionally, Alli Wiese was named to the D2CCA All-Midwest Region second team, making her a consensus All-Region honoree for 2023.
The All-Region honor is the first for Popplewell, who was named a first-team All-G-MAC honoree in both 2022 and 2023. The junior was one of five outside hitters to make the All-Midwest Region first team for the AVCA, and it caps an excellent year for Popplewell, Hillsdale's biggest and most consistent offensive threat up front. She led the Chargers in kills for the second consecutive season and finished fifth in the G-MAC in kills per set with a career-high 3.34. Her 374 kills entering this weekend's NCAA Tournament rank ninth all-time at Hillsdale College for a single season and are just 19 off her total from last year, giving her a chance to become just the fifth player in Hillsdale College history to surpass 400 kills in a season since the start of the 25 point, rally-scoring era began in 2008.
But while Popplewell has been a potent offensive weapon throughout her career for Hillsdale, her All-Region honor in 2023 is a testament to the growth of her all-around game. After playing almost exclusively in the front row in her first two seasons, Popplewell became a six-rotation player for the Chargers in 2023 and excelled, finishing with a career high 253 digs, 2.26 per set and eight double-doubles. The junior also became a potent force at the service line for Hillsdale. Despite entering the 2023 season with just six service aces to her name, Popplewell surpassed that number in one early-season match with a program record eight aces in a four-set victory over Wayne State on Sept. 8. Popplewell finished with 30 total aces on the season for the Chargers. Those numbers helped her stand out throughout the season for Hillsdale, as the junior was named to the All-Tournament team at the UP Open, the Findlay Classic, the Midwest Regional Crossover and the G-MAC Tournament.
Wiese, meanwhile, wraps up her Hillsdale career as a repeat All-Midwest Region honoree to the AVCA and also earning her first-ever D2CCA All-Region honors. The graduating Wiese has been a history-making libero for the Chargers throughout four seasons, as she earned All-American honors in 2022 and became the first libero ever to be named G-MAC Player of the Year this past season. Wiese stepped in as a libero in the second weekend of the spring 2021 season as a freshman and has been in the role ever since, starting all four seasons of her career while leading Hillsdale to three regular season conference championships, four conference tournament titles, three NCAA DII Tournament appearances and the 2021 Midwest Regional title.
Along the way she's etched herself into the record book at Hillsdale in several spots, tying the single-match record for digs with 40 against Walsh in 2022, breaking the single-season record for both Hillsdale and the G-MAC with 731 digs last season, and setting a new single-season service aces record at Hillsdale with 61 aces this year.
For her career, she enters this weekend's NCAA Tournament with with 2,231 digs, just 21 off the record held by her older sister Taylor despite playing only 19 official matches in the Covid-19 shortened spring season as a freshman, and 64 digs off the G-MAC record. Her 188 service aces also rank second all-time at Hillsdale in the stat.
Popplewell and Wiese will look to keep Hillsdale's season going this weekend and contend for what would be the Chargers' third Midwest Regional title in program history. The seventh-seeded Chargers play in an NCAA Tournament Regional Quarterfinal match at 3:30 PM ET, 2:30 PM local time on Thursday in St. Louis, Missouri against second seeded Ferris State.
Photos by Anthony Lupi and Scott Galvin